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More in Big Issues: Energy

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The explosion in April of that year of a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the largest offshore oil spill in the country's history.

For opponents of offshore drilling, Deepwater Horizon remains a rallying cry—the perfect example of just how wrong things can go when we try to extract the vast reserves of oil that lie under the ocean. And in the immediate wake of the disaster, it seemed like it might change everything, as a moratorium was imposed on deep-water drilling in the U.S. in May 2010. The moratorium was lifted in October of that year, but regulations governing offshore drilling were later toughened.

Those new regulations, it turns out, have amounted to little more than a speed bump for the energy industry.

Today, three years after Deepwater Horizon, offshore drilling is booming in the Gulf of Mexico, driven by the continued high price of oil, a series of massive new fields discovered with the help of improved exploration technology, and the growing difficulty of finding major new oil fields abroad.

Environmentalists worry that this drilling boom, and efforts to expand drilling even further—not only in the Gulf but also in the Arctic waters off Alaska, where technical problems and regulatory uncertainty are hampering oil companies—threaten to spawn another environmental disaster.

Proponents argue that offshore drilling is safer than ever and that we need more of the oil buried under the sea to lessen our reliance on imports.

Tyler Priest, an associate professor of history and geography at the University of Iowa, argues for increased offshore drilling. Cindy Zipf, the executive director of Clean Ocean Action Inc., based in Sandy Hook, N.J., makes the case against greater offshore drilling.

Yes: The Risks Are Overstated, The Benefits Are Understated

By Tyler Priest

ENLARGE

Tyler Priest
Timothy Schoon

The U.S. will be the world's largest per-capita consumer of crude oil for the foreseeable future. To help meet this demand and limit reliance on imports, the country will need to increase exploration for offshore oil.

As the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster demonstrated, there are risks. Critics, however, too often exaggerate the risks, including the impacts of routine drilling operations on ecosystems, and understate the benefits. Expanding offshore drilling with appropriate site selection, oversight and attention to the lessons from Deepwater Horizon—already embodied in new rules on equipment, drilling and safety—should be a central objective of U.S. energy policy.

Regardless of the progress we make in limiting our carbon addiction, kicking the habit won't happen easily or soon. The raw energy produced by a single offshore oil platform in 2010— BPBP-1.88% PLC's Thunder Horse facility in the Gulf of Mexico—was equivalent to the electricity generated in 2012 by all the wind and solar installations in the U.S. combined.

Offshore oil also does more than help satisfy our energy appetite. Annual federal proceeds from offshore leases have ranged as high as $18 billion in recent years, second only to income taxes as a revenue source. And every barrel of consumption that isn't imported helps ease the U.S. trade deficit.

Improved Techniques

It isn't necessary to drill along the entire outer continental shelf. Indeed, coastal states outside the Gulf of Mexico have effectively shut down leasing and drilling along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Only about 15% of the nation's territorial waters are open to oil and gas exploration. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management predicts most of the undiscovered oil on the outer shelf will be found in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaskan coast.

In the bureau's 2012-17 plan, the Arctic waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska are the chief areas slated for expanded leasing outside the Gulf. Environmental groups fear that drilling in the Arctic threatens the habitat of endangered marine mammals and have worked to prevent Royal Dutch ShellRDS.A0.19% PLC from exploring its existing leases. Shell's recent operating setbacks, none of which involved actual drilling, intensified opposition. Shell, Statoil ASSTO-2.08%A and ConocoPhillipsCOP-3.32% have all suspended Arctic exploration amid technical challenges and regulatory uncertainty, at least until 2014 for Shell and 2015 for the others.

We should take seriously the environmental challenges of drilling in the Arctic, but the risks there aren't the same as in the Gulf. The Arctic water is shallower (150 feet, versus 5,000 to 10,000 feet), and gas pressures are lower. Major oil companies have been operating in the Arctic for decades, and techniques for working in ice and detecting spilled oil beneath it have improved steadily. Scientific understanding of Arctic ecosystems is more advanced than opponents acknowledge.

Jobs and Revenue

Both the oil industry and the U.S. government have been moving forward very cautiously, in consultation with stakeholders and with unprecedented preparations for drilling and oil-spill response. Leaders from the state of Alaska and the North Slope Inupiat community advocate proceeding with Arctic drilling. They badly need the jobs and revenue, as well as the oil volumes to keep the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in operation. Although some people cheer the suspension of oil exploration in Arctic waters, this is a major setback for U.S. energy development.

Americans must find ways to reduce oil consumption. But we will still require lots of oil for a long time. If that oil doesn't come from the Arctic or other parts of the outer shelf, it will very likely come from places with weaker environmental and labor protections than we have in the U.S. Given these realities, we should not abandon the quest to determine the extent of our offshore oil resources and how much can be recovered in a responsible manner.

Mr. Priest is associate professor of history and geography at the University of Iowa. He can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

No: The U.S. Can Meet Its Needs Without Such an Expansion

By Cindy Zipf

ENLARGE

Cindy Zipf
Pearl Gabel

Expanded offshore drilling for oil in the U.S. would be an unnecessary, harmful step in the wrong direction.

Recent trends in U.S. energy consumption and production suggest we don't need to find more oil offshore. Our investment dollars and energies are better spent on renewable energy, conservation and efficiencies such as improved mass transit, smart grids and clean-emission vehicles—an approach that creates jobs, doesn't damage the environment and addresses fossil-fuel-driven climate change.

Along the Atlantic, Pacific, Alaskan and Gulf coasts, entire state budgets are built on revenues from clean-ocean economies. Fishing, boating, beach-going, surfing and tourism businesses rely on clean, healthy ecosystems. These businesses bring billions of dollars to coastal economies and provide jobs for millions of people. In light of recent superstorms and increasingly hostile ocean conditions, driven by climate change, shore-based economies are under enough stress without the added burdens imposed by offshore drilling.

No Need

According to the White House, U.S. demand for oil is at a 15-year low, and measures are in place to reduce it further by, for example, boosting fuel-economy standards for vehicles. The percentage of crude-oil consumption supplied by imports has declined, and if we stop exporting petroleum products like gasoline and heating oil—in 2011 the U.S. became a net exporter of petroleum products, sending 2.9 million barrels a day abroad—we further reduce our need for crude imports. These are all signs that we can and will break our dependence on oil, and that we're heading in that direction. Clearly, we don't need to expand offshore drilling to meet our needs.

In addition, more drilling would mean more damage to the environment. Seismic surveys—the piercing sound waves used to pinpoint oil deposits—travel thousands of miles, interfering with marine mammal reproduction, migration and communication, and causing localized reductions in fishery catches. Also, offshore oil facilities (pipelines, rigs, wellheads) generate significant air and water pollution.

Perhaps most significant, there is the ever-present risk of oil spills. Despite claims of safety improvements over the years, any rig, tanker or pipeline can become a disaster—regardless of the precautions taken. After thousands of rig and pipeline spills, fires and leaks onshore and off, as well as recent problems with operations in the Arctic, everyone can reasonably expect that expanded ocean drilling will involve significant environmental harm and the heavy economic toll that comes with it.

Not Worth It

What would be our reward for knowingly taking these risks? Forget about lower gasoline prices. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that if oil drilling was expanded in all the ocean areas of the lower 48 states, we would only see a three-cent reduction in the price of a gallon of gasoline by 2030.

The promise of oil jobs boosting local economies is a hollow one. History is replete with examples of energy companies coming into areas with supposedly struggling economies, claiming to be the solution. Once the extraction infrastructure is built or energy reservoirs are depleted, jobs vanish. This is beginning to play out in the Bakken oil fields in the Dakotas. Areas with already vibrant economies will also lose when the pollution footprint of expanded oil and gas drilling crowds out clean ocean uses. Investments in renewable energy, efficiency and conservation will produce lasting employment and a higher standard of living throughout the economy without incurring the same risks.

Offshore drilling yields too little benefit at too great a cost to our coastal communities, their economies and the environment. Instead, we should be working to build a smarter energy future.

Ms. Zipf is the executive director of Clean Ocean Action Inc., based in Sandy Hook, N.J. She can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

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